Created the 'Double Click' and Popularized PCs... Bill Atkinson Passes Away

Development of Pull-Down Menu, QuickDraw, MacPaint, and HyperCard

Bill Atkinson, the developer who contributed to the popularization of personal computers (PCs) by introducing features such as double-clicking and an intuitive graphical interface, has passed away. He was 74 years old.

Steve Jobs (left), former Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Bill Atkinson, computer programmer. Bill Atkinson Photography homepage

On June 7 (local time), The New York Times reported that Bill Atkinson, a computer programmer formerly at Apple, died on June 5 in Portola Valley, California, USA. His family announced via Facebook that Atkinson passed away from pancreatic cancer.

He joined Apple in 1978 as its 51st employee at the invitation of Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple. In the early 1980s, when Jobs was leading a team of young developers and designers to create the Macintosh computer, Atkinson developed 'QuickDraw,' the graphics system used in the Macintosh. QuickDraw was notable for displaying icons such as desktops, folders, and files. Before the development of QuickDraw, PCs were text-based rather than graphics-based and had to be operated using commands. For this reason, QuickDraw is considered the core graphical user interface (GUI) of the Macintosh computer.

Atkinson also created the 'double-click' feature, which allows users to open files, folders, or applications by clicking the mouse button twice in quick succession, and the 'pull-down menu,' where clicking a button activates and displays a list of submenus. In addition, he was responsible for other key early Macintosh programs such as 'MacPaint' and 'HyperCard.' Thanks to MacPaint, ordinary users without technical skills could draw directly on the computer screen, while HyperCard enabled people who were not programmers to create application software. Notably, HyperCard is also regarded as a precursor to the World Wide Web (WWW).

Bill Atkinson. Bill Atkinson Photography homepage

Atkinson left Apple in 1990 to found the software company 'General Magic,' but the company closed in 2004 due to management difficulties. Afterward, Atkinson became active as a nature photographer and published a photography book in 2004.